Anklebiter

"You are right, the money is in SP. But the desire to produce SP is not in the long term community's minds. The community is MP." Yeah, I get that multi-player is a hoot and that personally you are sold. It may be that there is room for both types of mission builders in this community, but since I am so new, that is yet to be seen.

OP is a hot topic on the mission builders forum. Single player DCS missions/campaigns are criticized as being empty and soulless, with few exceptions. Future looks bright though! https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=217094

Please refer to this thread, current on the main DCS 2.5 forum as an example. https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=217043 This can be fixed with just a little bit of loving from the ED folks.

I'm not sure this has to be true. To clarify the original post, my target is a single player campaign, that *might* be played in coop. The vast majority of video gaming is played single player. I would suspect this holds true for DCS, although I have no data to back that up. Let's assume this is a fact. If so, the dollars lie in single player. DCS is doing a number of things right. Fantastic planes are coming in fast, the 2.5 update offers incredible visuals and VR. Oh yes, VR. (Isn’t this the holy grail of video gaming? Being able to fly, drive or walk all on a multiplayer server in VR? Isn’t this the dream of Star Citizen that so many people bought into?) I digress. The complaint against scripted campaigns is based on the historical fact that most games offer that one campaign and that's it. With the mission builder, DCS might allow folks to download a brand new story every Friday night for the low price of $10. The mission builder is damn close to allowing this. The market offers excellent incentive for highly imaginative people to put in an effort. Yeah, that's huge. Video gaming 101. The radio is good. This matches the emails and story vehicle of games from System Shock through Prey. The x:set command action is also good. As a builder, I can take control of the user plane and do what I will with it, including showing other views. During mission, I could add spice. I would have to program each and every keystroke to allow this though, including flight! Pretty damn hard to use. Please make something simpler, or perhaps there is another way for in-mission "cut scenes" I don't know about. //edit Mission briefing is sorely lacking. Need voice, and some video capabilities. Let me set up context! That's about it. Not so much. DCS is all about excellence. Of course you will skip story if it sucks. That's not what we are talking about. Success is keyed off excellence, and the difference between a worthy effort and excellence can be so small.

Thanks Ian! Complicated as hell, but I'll check it out! Way easier than handling that all with command controls...

I think X:Set Command would also work for this.

Hi folks, The biggest critique of DCS I have heard is that the campaigns are soulless and sterile. This has also been leveled against IL-2. Rich media and gaming has merged long ago to define a new artform. Gamers have always loved combat sims. With VR, sims are seeing a renaissance. Now is the time to address that gap, and rich media is the place to start. Gamers are paying attention again. We are talking about major dollars for devs, and with economy of scale, cheaper prices for entry. I'm firmly in the Matt Wagner camp that a hand-crafted campaign can offer way more immersion than any dynamic campaign. "Can" being the operative word here. Such a campaign would require the skills of a highly imaginative person, with a huge commitment in time. (Hats off to those of you who have achieved this in DCS.) I'd like to think that I can make a contribution here. My suggestions: Audio and video during campaign briefings. This is just video gaming 101. Machinima: Full camera control for the builder at any time. Machinima: Full control of the plane at any time I get that with the new command X:Set Command you could achieve most of this. But talk about a pain in the ass! Opportunity knocks ED....

My first contribution: The verbiage in the guide isn't right. The command numbers show up when you hover over the keyboard setting on the right side of the screen, not the description on the left. Took me a bit to figure that; maybe I saved somebody some time with this.

I wonder if you could do this as a command in the mission editor, similar to how autopause is set during training missions.

Maybe answered my own question by looking at training mission from ED. x:set command action at mission start. In order to find the command number: The command ID can be obtained in the Game Options>Controls screen by hovering the mouse over the command description (left side of the screen). This functionality can be enabled in Mission Editor/Mission Editor.lua by changing the “OPTIONS_ADD_COMMAND_CODES_TO_TOOLTIP” line from “false” to “true”. Need to test, but if works as it seems, then COOL!

Hi folks. Brand spanking new to DCS world and I've got a great idea for a campaign. I've played around with the campaign builder to a certain point but haven't dipped into LUA scripting yet. Before I jump in too deep, it will be useful to set expectations from the get go. Quick question: for my intro I'd like to start in external view/no player control with voiceover. When voiceover complete, jump into the cockpit and give the player the reigns. I've got the voiceover part. Is the view modification doable? Would this be a script? Second, I read that they were going to add audio/video capability to mission briefing. It was an old post from EDH. Any idea if this is coming down the pipe? Thanks. I hope to contribute soon.